DMRocket 2, first launch (and last)

[blike]

I launched the second incarnation of my video rocket today. Initially I tried to spark the ignitor using a 6 volt battery, but it wouldn't fire. Then I hooked it up to my van's battery (in the video), which worked fine.

 

Unfortunately, the rocket suffered a hard impact (you can sort of see at the end of the video). The rocket was quite a few ounces heavier than the parachute was designed for, but I figured it would be fine. Two fins broke off when the rocket touched down. The camera lens was (unwisely designed) protruding a tiny bit from the rocket's nose cone. On impact, the lens came loose from its port on the chipset, which destroyed all the data. So all I have left is the video of the launch we took.

 

The video (right click-save target as): http://www.blike.com/dmrocket/dmr2/launch1.wmv

 

Some Pictures:

[Sayonara]

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH

 

Straight to the sun!

[Crash]

Went quite high, why aren't you going to make anymore?

[YT2095]

pity about your cam

I wouldn`t let that stop you though! just make a few changes next time using the information you`ve learned, at least you didn`t actualy LOSE the entire thing, that`s happened to me several times, and I`m still working on a bigger and better one (I`m going to put a tiny FM beeper in the next one). your 2 fins will be easily attatched again. from the sounds of you on the video, you enjoyed the launch quite a bit, so I don`t think it`ll be long before planning to do it again

Nice height btw! what did you eventualy decide upon for the ejection charge?

[Dave]

That was pretty sweet, just a shame about the camera really. Better luck next time.

[blike]

Oh yea, it is definitely enjoyable even though we didn't get the video. A lot of the fun is designing and building the rocket. The launches are amazing as well. For my next one I'm thinking about adding an altimeter and switching over to wireless video transmission. That rocket was powered on a G-40. I'm going to try and get my hands on some 'H' class engines next time.

[Dave]

I'd be interested to know how you were going to do the wireless video transmission. I'd quite like to do something like that myself, but I'm not exactly sure how.

[YT2095]

how `bout the ejection method, what did you finaly settle on?

[blike]

For this rocket I just used an engine which had a timed ejection built in. However, I'm pretty sure I will be using black powder ejection charges for the next rocket. I found some cheap flashbulbs I can use to spark the powder. I'm going to build a prototype of the ejection system this month, so I'll probably have tons of questions

[blike]

Dave, I'll post details of my plans here once I figure out what kind of system I want to use.